Second Hand News
by loveadubdub
Summary: He doesn't care about the Finchel drama. Or that Finn and Quinn are too stupid together to even have a nickname. It's all so dumb, and he doesn't know why no else notices. Probably because they wouldn't know a real problem if it kicked them in the balls.


**SECOND HAND NEWS**

…

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

He was supposed to get a fresh start in a new city where no one knew him and he could be anyone he wanted to be.

Or at least that's what he kept telling himself while he was packing up his old life and preparing to leave Tennessee. Ohio was gonna be awesome because he could make a brand new life. Not that his old life was _bad _or anything, but he was never super popular or anything. So Ohio was supposed to give him that chance.

That was the only thing that made saying goodbye to his friends at McCallie okay.

But the thing about McKinley... No one really cares what kind of fresh start you're looking for. If somebody decides your life should be hell, it's pretty much gonna be hell.

He's never been to public school before, so all of this is still kind of new to him. He never imagined people stalking you around the halls and throwing slushies at your face, but it happens. Like a lot. And it sucks.

And he's not popular, either.

Not even with the sports and the cheerleader girlfriends and all that crap. He's still just a glee dork. That's what the whole school sees him as. And whatever. He got used to that and started thinking that maybe it wasn't so bad because at least these guys were his friends. And twelve good friends are probably better than like fifty semi-friends.

But seriously? They can all go to hell.

Well, not all of them. But most of them. They suck. They're not his friends- they're just a bunch of nosy gossips who like to talk shit and spread rumors. It's kind of funny because for a club that gets picked on and bullied so much, they sure do enough of it on their own. And he's sick of it.

He doesn't give a crap about the Finchel drama. Or about the fact that Quinn and Finn are so stupid together that they can't even _get _a nickname. It's all so _dumb, _and he doesn't know why no one else sees that.

Probably because none of them would know a _real _problem if it came up and kicked them in the ass.

It's stupid now, thinking back to just a few months ago when he was obsessed with social status and keeping a girl who obviously didn't want him. A lot's changed since then, and he feels a crap-ton older now. It sucks. He doesn't want to be older, he just wants to be sixteen.

But when he sees the newspaper and sees that he's apparently having affairs with both Quinn _and _Kurt, he can't really remember why being a teenager is supposed to be appealing.

High school _sucks._

…

Stacy and Seth don't even know what's going on.

A lot of that probably has to do with the fact that their parents tried to pretend like this was some kind of adventure or something when it first happened. They put on this stupid show that was supposed to keep the kids calm and prove that everything was okay. And it kind of worked. Stacy even came home one day bragging about how she told her whole class that she gets to live in a hotel now, like _Eloise._

Eloise lives in the freaking Plaza. Stacy's living in a glorified roach motel with three TV channels.

But whatever. If she's not miserable, he's not gonna like point that stuff out to her. And she said a lot of the kids in her class are jealous and think it's "very cool."

Her teacher sent home a backpack full of food last week and a list of all the places in town that help homeless families with children.

It's bullshit. They're not like... _homeless._

But crap, they totally are.

…

Quinn comes over one night with nail polish, Uno, and a box of munchkins from Dunkin Donuts. He doesn't have much use for the nail polish, but the munchkins are _awesome, _and he kind of kicks ass at Uno.

Seth turns out to be better.

He beats all of them, and Quinn pretends to be really offended by her (major) loss. Stacy just giggles and then tells them she can count to ten in Spanish.

After two more games, Quinn takes charge and asks about homework. Seth still has math to do, so she makes him do it (bribes him with donuts), while she paints Stacy's nails a light pink. She lets her plug into her iPod, and Stacy's head bounces around to whatever playlist Quinn's set up for her. It's cute.

"You don't have to do this." It's probably the millionth time he's said it, and it's probably nowhere close to the last.

Quinn just shrugs and keeps her eyes fixed on the nails she's painting.

"I know what it's like," she says quietly. "When you don't have anywhere to go, you need your friends."

She doesn't make eye contact when she says it, and he's almost positive that admitting that is like physically causing her pain. But it's nice. He understands where she's coming from even if he wasn't around to witness last year.

She gets up to leave half an hour later, and Stacy takes her earbuds out. "Don't forget your iPod."

"You can hang onto it." Quinn winks at her, and Stacy looks like someone's just given her a million dollars. Her face only barely drops when Quinn adds, "But share it with Seth."

…

He ends up in the paper again, basically saying he's running a teenage prostitution ring out a sleezy motel, and whatever, he's just over it.

He dodges looks and whispers all day, and he's so sick of it. He's sick of telling people he's not helping Quinn cheat on her boyfriend. He's sick of telling people he's not gay. He's sick of all of it, and he just wants everyone to shut up and leave him alone.

Santana rolls her eyes when he passes her locker and asks him when he started shopping at Goodwill because, "That shirt looks straight up like Alexander McBum's spring runway show." He almost turns around and tells her to shut the fuck up, but he doesn't because she would take that and run with it.

And anyway, she's not worth it.

He doesn't know if she's gay, and he really doesn't care. He didn't even care when she dropped him for Karofsky because she would have dumped him in a heartbeat if she found out the truth. So at least that way was less humiliating. He doesn't like her anyway, so whatever.

He has chemistry with Puck and Tina, and they both try to pump him for information. Tina's kind of nice, so he tells her to mind her own business as politely as possible. And Puck's sort of his boy, but he needs to seriously step off with the lecturing because it's not like he is the poster boy for perfection. So he tells him to back off, and Puck just kind of rolls his eyes but doesn't say anything else.

…

Seth asks him if they're poor one day, and it's like the saddest thing ever.

They're out at the motel's playground throwing a baseball around while Stacy and their parents are at the store. He doesn't really know what to say, but Seth's just holding the ball and looking at him, waiting for some kind of answer. So he just says, "Yeah. Kind of."

"When are we going back to our house?"

"We're not." Crap, this is hard. He doesn't want to be the one having this conversation.

"Are we homeless?"

"We have place to sleep." It's easier than saying yes.

"I don't want to live here forever. The bed is too hard, and Stacy kicks too much."

That's true. All three of them have to share a bed, while their parents sleep on the fold-out. Stacy basically sleeps on his back every night, but her legs always go crazy for hours, and it's rough. So he doesn't really blame his brother for not digging the arrangement too much.

"It won't be forever." He doesn't know how true that is. Really, he thinks the chances of them actually being on the streets are more likely than them getting another house anytime soon, but he doesn't say that.

Instead, he just tells Seth to throw the ball and tries to keep him as distracted as possible.

…

It all blows up in glee one day.

Rachel starts it by singing some weird song to Finn that kind of sounds like a break up song but maybe might be a love song... Whatever it is, Quinn's pissed. So they start yelling at each other, and then everybody else starts sticking their noses in. And of course, it all comes down on him and the fact that he's helping both Quinn and Kurt cheat on their boyfriends.

It's so _stupid._

Seriously. He doesn't know why he ever thought these people were his friends because none of them have his back, and all they want is something to gossip about. If nothing's happening, they'll just make something up. And they're accusing him off all kinds of stuff he's never done and never plans on doing. And it _sucks _because they're supposed to be his friends.

When Finn pushes too hard, though, he finally snaps.

And then he's blurting out the truth and hating every single word that comes out of his mouth. It's so humiliating. But he just wants them to _stop. _He just wants everyone to leave him alone, so he tells them the truth. He tells him that he's poor and homeless and that he's living in one room with four other people. And it's so _embarrassing._

And then he leaves because he can't stand to see any of their faces.

…

His mom's crying when he gets home, and he seriously cannot deal.

She hasn't cried a lot or anything, but he knows she's stressed out. She's never worked, and she basically has no experience or skills whatsoever, so it's not some huge shock that nobody wants to hire her. She can't even get on at stupid restaurant or retail jobs because all those people want to hire someone younger and more reliable- meaning someone without three kids. Obviously they don't come out and say that, but that's what his mom thinks, and it's probably true.

She tries to stop crying when he unlocks the door. She wipes her eyes and asks what he's doing home so early. He lies and tells her glee was canceled, and she believes him because why wouldn't she? He asks where the kids are, and she tells him that they're at the playground.

"I'll take them to McDonald's later, so you can have a break." They don't really have the money to eat out, but maybe they can splurge on the Dollar Menu. God, his life sucks.

"Sam..." His mom gives him that devastated smile she has. "Honey, you don't have to do that."

"Nah, it's cool. I'm hungry anyway."

And she nods and heads into the bathroom. She's going to wash her face and make the fact that she's been crying less evident.

He won't mention it if she doesn't.

…

When he opens the door and sees Finn and Rachel standing there, he wants to punch Finn and tell Rachel to keep her nose out of everyone else's business.

He doesn't. He lies and says he's trying to get his sister to nap, but Stacy pops up at the door and introduces herself like the crazy nutjob that she is. So he has to let them in. And he hates the looks on their faces when they see the junked up hotel room that's got everything they own in the world crammed into literally every corner.

It's the same look that all the people at church have, and he hates it. He hates it because he _knows _they're all full of pity, and it makes him feel pathetic.

He tells them the whole story, even though it's really not their business. But they seem kind of sorry for being such assholes, so he tries to forget it and just tell them what's going on. Rachel looks like she might burst into tears, and he really hopes she doesn't. Finn just kind of looks ashamed.

Then they give him back his freaking guitar, and he just loses it.

He doesn't know why really because he's done a really good job of not crying so far. They've been in that hotel for weeks now, and he's hated every second of it. And sometimes he's felt like his whole life was over. But he never cried. But then he's sitting there looking at his guitar, exactly like he left it at the pawn shop three weeks ago, and Rachel's telling him that the whole glee club pitched in to buy it back... And he just can't take it.

Finn looks crazy uncomfortable, and then Rachel starts crying, too. And it sucks that all this is happening here with them when he needs to put blame somewhere and had kind of pinned them for the job. But they're really not that bad. Yeah, Finn stole his girlfriend and Rachel used him as a scapegoat to manipulate her ex-boyfriend... But they're alright.

But whatever, he really needs some friends right now.

…

He steals the iPod from Stacy one night and realizes that Quinn's got the entire Rumours album on there.

He listens to the songs and replays a few. His sister grabs one of the earbuds, and they listen together while they lay in bed and eat cereal. She finds a song she loves and makes him play it like six times until she learns it well enough to sing along. She giggles when he tells her she should join glee with him.

And then he gets an idea.

…

Seth and Stacy love going to school with him and hanging out with the glee club.

They know a few of them, but they really take up with everybody, even the ones they've never met before. Everyone's really nice to them and plays with them, and it's cool. He knows they think it's really awesome to have so many teenagers paying attention to them.

Tina and Mercedes promise to take them to the movies that weekend, and Artie lets them play in his chair. Quinn asks them if they want ice cream after church on Sunday, and Finn helps Seth bang on the choir room drum set.

"Your friends are so cool!" Stacy's practically like _gushing _while they wait on the bus to take them home.

And she's right. They're cool.

And they're his friends.

…

A/N: My poor Sammy... :(


End file.
